Music and Empire

Thank you for your interest in Music 81D!

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Examines the roles music played in empire building across geographical regions and timeframes. Focuses both on how colonizers employed music to further the colonial project and how local communities used music and cultural practices to preserve their identities and resist colonization.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of the course, students will be able to

• Apply critical perspectives on institutional power and knowledge, describing the ways in which colonizers used music and cultural practices to further the colonial project in various geographical regions and time frames

• Evaluate competing interpretations and multiple narratives of the past, identifying how people used music and cultural practices to preserve their identities and resist colonization

• Engage in critical thinking about musical language, examining how musical practices both clashed and combined in colonial spaces

• Recognize how musical practices during colonization have influenced our musical cultural practices today and how music and artistic expression can be used in activism and decolonization

ONLINE COURSE FORMAT

• You will complete most of your work asynchronously in Canvas (i.e. students will engage with the material at their own pace, with weekly deadlines). Music 81D's asynchronous content includes

  1. • • • interactive video lectures 

         • readings

         • journal writing

         • final project

         • midterm and final exams

     • Opportunities for real-time interaction include discussion sections (mandatory) and office hours (optional).

NATURE OF ASSIGNMENTS

Each week, students will

• Engage with readings and pre-recorded lectures that critically examine the role music played in the colonial project and in resisting colonization

• Demonstrate their comprehension of topics and main arguments in quizzes

• Analyze and articulate in a journal entry how the readings, interviews, and lectures relate to their own observations and experiences and changed or enriched their perspectives

At the end of the course, students will

• Apply concepts and strategies they learned in the course in a final project, chosen from a project menu

• Demonstrate their understanding in a final exam

• Evaluate and articulate their learning process in a student survey

REQUIRED COURSE MATERIALS AND TECHNOLOGY

All course materials are provided in Canvas. Students will need access to a computer or device on which to access Canvas and Zoom. Some final project options will require a video and/or audio recording device (e.g., computer, smart phone, or tablet).

STUDENT HOURS

For this 3-credit course, students should plan to spend 9 hours per week (9 hours per half-week during Summer Session), roughly:

• 3–4 hours reading

• 2–3 hours engaging with interview and lecture videos

• 1 hour completing quizzes

• 1 hour journal writing

• 1 hour in discussion sections (not every week)

During the final two weeks of instruction (one week during Summer Session), students will spend most of their 9 hours working on their final projects.